Illusion Report

Except for a torn corner, the yellow warning poster was so new it seemed utterly out of place with its surroundings.

It was stuck to a utility box on the side of the road, well below eye level. If one didn’t bother to scan the area, their gaze would easily slide right over the box. ’Perhaps that’s why I didn’t notice it on my way here?’

Mai Mingle’s mind was a tangled mess of thoughts, a flurry of questions arising all at once:

’Isn’t hiding a rule in an inconspicuous place a violation in itself? The Nest data in her head clearly stated that rules were supposed to be as obvious and clear as possible to give humans a fair playing field, right?’

’Now that I’ve broken the rule, what’s going to happen?’

"What did you say?" Emily’s voice sounded from behind her again. "Were you talking to me?"

Mai Mingle’s heart jumped—Emily sounded much closer, as if she were walking this way.

’But why? If she’s walking toward me, doesn’t that mean Emily has to turn around and face away from the Tourist Information Center’s entrance?’

When Mai Mingle turned her head, she saw it was true. Emily had long since turned her back to the Tourist Information Center entrance and was walking toward her. She had already crossed the narrow road and was only a few steps away from Mai Mingle.

Watching her get closer, Mai Mingle grew confused.

’She can’t be planning a murder-suicide, can she? She doesn’t look the type.’

Emily’s face was placid, the lines of her bones sharp and deeply defined. When she was expressionless, she looked almost like a stone sculpture.

The moment her gaze fell upon the poster, her only reaction was a slight lift of her eyelashes; then her face was still again. She stared at the poster for a long moment before nodding.

’...Could she be seeing this poster for the first time, too?’

A seemingly unreasonable suspicion rose in Mai Mingle’s mind.

"So that’s it... I wasn’t lying. There really was a resident behind you, but it scurried off somewhere the moment you turned around," Emily said. "This is the first time I’ve seen this rules poster, too. We’ve turned our backs to the entrance, but you don’t have to worry. I think I know what’s going on."

Mai Mingle stared at her blankly. "What’s going on?"

Emily gestured toward the Tourist Information Center on the other side of the road.

"I don’t think the one behind us is the real Tourist Information Center. It’s just one of the unclassifiable non-living things in the Nest, disguised as a Tourist Information Center. That’s why, even though we turned our backs to it and seemingly broke the rule, nothing happened..."

As she spoke, Emily frowned. "That was a close call."

The term "non-living thing" triggered a memory, and the corresponding Nest data surfaced in Mai Mingle’s mind.

Besides residents, traps, scripts, and Illusions—things that could just barely be classified and recognized by Hunters—the Nest was also filled with a great number of chaotic, dangerous, yet hard-to-define things. Like the dense cluster of road signs that had followed Mai Mingle all this way.

The labels "living" and "non-living" were merely a crude distinction based on their outward appearance.

But regardless of whether they were living or not, they could all think and react. They would all adjust and adapt based on a Hunter’s actions, weaving a net that tightened ever closer.

"How do you know?" Mai Mingle asked, a lingering fear in her voice. "The consequences of breaking a rule don’t always happen immediately, do they?"

The Tourist Information Center across the narrow road looked like the real deal. In the display window next to the main entrance stood a few racks for theater troupe advertisements and several introductory pamphlets. The opening hours for all seven days of the week were even printed on the door.

But at least one thing was certain: Emily probably hadn’t been trying to deliberately set her up. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have broken the rule herself.

Strangely, that thought was more comforting to Mai Mingle than anything else.

"True. I can’t rule out the possibility that we’ll run into bad luck in a little while, but I don’t think the chances are high."

Emily said calmly, "You probably don’t know this, but for the next few hundred meters, the street is practically lined with Tourist Information Centers. I came from the other end. They were one after another, filling the whole road. Nothing but."

Mai Mingle froze, suddenly remembering something else.

"I only came this way because I saw a road sign. It said the Tourist Information Center was seven hundred meters away and warned me not to be fooled by fake centers. I’ve only walked about half that distance, and I’ve already seen one... So it really is suspicious. At the very least, it’s not the same information center the sign was pointing to."

Emily nodded. "Just walk in that direction for a bit, and you’ll see. That street is full of them."

She paused, her gaze returning to the poster. "Luckily, we weren’t in the designated ’rule area’ when we broke the rule. But even so, this is completely unfair. The rule is posted in such an inconspicuous spot, far from the Tourist Information Center—the actual ’rule area’ itself... What’s the difference between having this rule and not having it at all?"

Even when she was displeased, her tone remained calm. ’I guess you can’t become a Hunter without some special strengths,’ Mai Mingle thought.

"Did you pick one and go inside to check?"

Emily shook her head. "If there were only one or two, I would have. But the whole street is lined with them, and every single door says ’Tourist Information Center.’ It makes it hard to commit to entering any of them. Too many choices, and you end up not wanting to choose any. I decided to just keep walking down the road to see where it ended, and that’s when I ran into you."

Mai Mingle could understand that feeling.

’It’s a good thing Emily didn’t go in. She might have broken the rule without even knowing it existed—which, now that I think about it, is truly unfair.’

"This information center must be the last one. I came from the opposite direction and walked all around the area. I didn’t see a single one on my way here," Mai Mingle said, pointing in the direction she’d come from.

"If that’s the case, then there are seventeen Tourist Information Centers in total," Emily said immediately.

’...How many?’

"You counted?"

"I did," Emily confirmed with a nod. "Not only that, but each one has a small number on the door. The one closest to us is number 17, and it’s also the 17th Tourist Information Center I counted."

Mai Mingle wanted to sigh. ’Why can’t anything ever go smoothly?’

She and Emily had to find Annie’s Warehouse within one hour and forty minutes, or they would fail the interview. But with seventeen Tourist Information Centers, even if they only spent five minutes inspecting each one, they would use up all their time. How would they have enough left to get to the meeting point?

Before she could speak, Emily seemed to guess what she was about to say.

"I also considered whether we should just give up on this area and find another way to look for Annie’s Warehouse..." Emily said, folding her arms. "But since landing, I’ve already spent an hour searching the vicinity. I’ve looked at countless red brick buildings, but I still haven’t found Annie’s Warehouse. So I’m thinking, could the Kai Family have anticipated this situation?"

Mai Mingle thought for a moment.

"You’re saying that ’finding Annie’s Warehouse’ is part of the Kai Family’s test for us, and the Tourist Information Centers are likely the challenge we have to overcome?"

"Exactly."

Emily snapped her fingers, her expression still flat and emotionless. "The Kai Family specifically chose the Old Port area for the drop. They’re clearly familiar with the challenges in this region. They know what kind of problems we’ll face and want to see how we handle them. Otherwise, why would they deliberately omit the location of Annie’s Warehouse?"

Mai Mingle was silent for a moment.

"...Find the real Tourist Information Center, get the location of Annie’s Warehouse from inside it, and then go meet up with the Kai Family, right?"

She sighed. "If that’s the case... this is more than just tricky. Sigh. This makes things a bit awkward for the two of us."

Emily tilted her head, glanced at her, then at the poster, and seemed to understand what she meant.

"The first rule clearly states, ’Do not follow people you know.’"

With a touch of inexplicable embarrassment, Mai Mingle suggested nicely, "Why don’t we just stay a bit further apart? If we keep enough distance, that should count as being ’wary’ of an acquaintance, not breaking the rule, right? As long as we can see each other, we can still watch each other’s backs."

"I don’t need anyone watching my back," Emily replied, still calm. "And I won’t be watching anyone else’s. In a Nest, conserving energy is crucial. It’s enough just to look after yourself. However, I agree with your proposal. We can each walk on one side of the road, try to stay parallel, and avoid talking unless necessary."

’Right, we can’t walk one behind the other—otherwise, the person in the back would be ’following someone they know.’’

Emily truly was an experienced Hunter. Before they left, she pulled out her phone and took a picture of the rules poster. Reminded, Mai Mingle quickly did the same.

She always found it novel, the way a clear picture would appear on a screen with just the press of a button. So after taking the shot, she habitually stared at it for a few moments.

By the time she put her phone away, a hazy, formless, cloud-like strange feeling had risen in Mai Mingle’s heart.

...But she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

"Let’s go," Emily said. "We should both be heading to the same place."

’Just as I thought, no fool can become a Hunter.’

The first place to check was, naturally, the Tourist Information Center about three hundred and fifty meters from where Mai Mingle was. It was the only location mentioned on a road sign and deserved top priority.

’But, based on Emily’s description, that spot three hundred and fifty meters away is probably crammed with several information centers. How am I supposed to tell them apart... Forget it. I’ll figure it out when I get there. What conclusion can I draw before I’ve even seen it with my own eyes?’

Mai Mingle walked past Tourist Information Center number 17 as she thought.

Emily walked on the other side of the street, keeping pace with her.

Her faint, hazy reflection appeared on the display window’s glass, briefly dimming the performance advertisement.

Before turning the corner onto the street filled with Tourist Information Centers, Mai Mingle subconsciously glanced into the display window.

Three advertisements stood side-by-side in the window, seeming to stare back at her: a woman in medieval European dress holding a wooden basin; a small figure surrounded by a crowd, holding a yellow slip of paper high in the air; and a giant, faintly distorted eye behind a magnifying glass.

When Mai Mingle turned her head, she realized she had fallen two steps behind and quickly hurried to catch up with Emily.

Maintaining their parallel paths, the two of them walked into the street beyond the corner.

Mai Mingle raised her eyes.

In that instant, she felt as if someone had chewed up all the Tourist Information Centers in the world, swallowed them haphazardly, and then vomited them all back up. The undigested vomit had then flowed down the street, forming an entire road of "Tourist Information Centers."

At a single glance, her mind threatened to become as sloppy and disordered as the vomit-like Tourist Information Centers lining both sides of the street—

Tourist Information Centourist Infotion Centermationtouristouristinfomation

Infomationtouristmationtourist Informationtourist Center Centertourist Information Center